Alike and yet Unlike:
The trip was also good for getting a measure of the twins vis-a-vis each other, and especially in sizing up Meredith Ellen and what she’s like at close quarters.
She does not have the same charge-ahead personality that Meredith does; she’s quieter, far less raucous, and more likely to think things through before acting. She’s also a very black and white sort of person; while Mere will go for fantasy stories, ME wants something that is more reality-based and this-did-happen sort of situation. (While other kids were going on about a person in a cartoon character outfit, she said matter-of-factly and scornfully ‘It’s just a person in a suit.’) God help you if she ever catches you in a lie.
Meredith Grace has been talking about becoming a journalist or a writer when she grows up; I think it’s likely that Meredith Ellen would take after her daddy and become an engineer. She has that kind of view of the universe, to my mind.
She can’t handle scary stuff at all; Meredith Grace can, to a greater degree. At one point, not long ago, she was making a remark about horror DVDs she saw at the store, and said that they scared her but fascinated her at the same time. Eeek! But at the same time, she can compartmentalize that off into not-really-real, and I dunno that ME can.
They’re both radiantly beautiful, the more so when they’re not trying to be ‘on stage’. The more ‘natural’ they are and true to themselves, the better off they are. Both can be incredibly sweet kids, very helpful and nice.
Both also have a bossy, obstinate streak, and can get seriously mulish. With Meredith Grace, I don’t get mad and yell, but she’s well aware when Daddy Is Serious and Don’t Mess With Him. She also doesn’t try to sneak around on stuff; if she wants X, she’s pretty up front about it. However, if something’s upsetting her, she may not (as her sister is more apt to do) openly talk it out with a parent; she bulls through and gets cranky until something explodes and SISSY-anguish comes out, say, when it’s built to intolerable levels. Tough kid.
Both consider each other their Best Friend, and you have to say ‘outside the family’ as a qualifier to get a different response. The twin bond is something that goes way deep, a need for each other as a peer and a friend, someone who is the only other person who *understands* things.
Luckily, neither has really encountered racism as such; Meredith Grace was reacting over all of the talk in the news over racism as if ‘that’s ancient history, dad’, as if we were all talking about the finer points of Al Capone, Model Ts and the Charleston. There’s been some ‘you’re not really properly Chinese stuff’ that came from culturally Chinese kids - a tiny dusting at Meredith Grace, and a bigger dose at Meredith Ellen. But otherwise, the biggest insult to Meredith Grace by someone calling her a name would be ’short’, which riles her no end.